Sustain Mizzou dresses up for food drive
Food costumes prompted donations.
Published Oct. 16, 2009
Sustain Mizzou began its annual local food drive Monday to aid the Central Missouri Food Bank.
"In the past we raised a couple thousand dollars each time," Sustain Mizzou President Emily Albertson said. "It's one of our bigger fundraising projects."
Students could be seen standing outside of the student center between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. wearing vegetable costumes to raise money Sustain Mizzou will later use to purchase food from farmers located within 50 miles of Columbia to donate to the food bank.
Between 15 and 20 volunteers participated throughout the week to collect the monetary donations.
The costumes include a pea pod, an egg and an apple.
"They were more willing to give money to people dressed up in costumes than people just walking around," volunteer, junior Rachel Brunner, said. "I wore the egg costume for a little bit."
The aim of wearing the costume is to gain attention for the cause.
"People are more willing to talk to you when you are dressed as a pea pod," Vice President of Programming Tina Casagrand said. "It draws more attention to you."
If you simply ask, most people are willing to donate if they are able, Brunner said.
"If you just go up and ask them and just confront the people then they will give you money if they have it," Brunner said. "A lot of people don't carry cash or change with them any more. They just have credit cards, and that's one of the problems we are running in to."
The issue of people carrying little change or cash in favor of credit cards was not too much of an issue this year though, Brunner said.
"In the future we will probably have to figure something out for an alternative to change," she said.
The number of charitable events taking place simultaneously is proving to be the biggest problem, Casagrand said.
"I think there's some charity fatigue on campus right now," Casagrand said. "So it may not be because of the merit of the food drive, just that there are too many things going on that we haven't seen the same numbers as we have in the past."
The food drive is consistent with the organization's goals in that it keeps production and consumption of food local, Albertson said.
"In the past we've tried to build relationships with local farmers and we basically are open to buying or working with any local farmers that have fresh, nutritious produce that they are wanting to sell to us so we can give back to needy people," Casagrand said.
Sustain Mizzou talks to the Central Missouri Food Bank to see what products they are especially in need of and then does its best to buy those specific items, Albertson said.
"The local food drive promotes sustainability not necessarily on campus, but in the community where we buy local foods. The food doesn't have to travel thousands of miles," Albertson said. "It's just promoting sustainability all around."
Brunner said she was enthusiastic to volunteer in the local food drive.
"I think it's for a really good cause and helps inform other people about what Sustain Mizzou is doing, and I just think it's great that we can provide local food to the hungry people of Missouri," Brunner said.